Today, Elon Musk, as the first indirect beneficiary of that move, is probably lighting a Cuban cigar. That’s because Oracle, by leaving the Nasdaq, can no longer be part of the Nasdaq 100 index — and that clears a space for the company Musk founded: Tesla.

Nasdaq announced today in a terse press release that it would remove ORCL and replace it with TSLA.

New York, New York — Tesla Motors, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) will become a component of the NASDAQ-100 Index® (NASDAQ:NDX) and the NASDAQ-100 Equal Weighted Index (NASDAQ:NDXE) prior to market open on Monday, July 15, 2013. Tesla Motors, Inc. will replace Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL).

And that’s the entire press release, except for a page and a half of pretty much rote boilerplate.

The Nasdaq has fairly clear criteria for inclusion in its index of 100: Companies need to meet certain market capitalization and trading volume metrics, have been “seasoned” by being listed for at least three months, not be in bankruptcy, not be primarily financial services companies, and so forth.

And, of course, they cannot be traded on a rival exchange.

The benefit of being in the Nasdaq 100, like any exchange, is probably mostly symbolic, although it may provide a certain small amount of extra visibility. Your stock gets listed on the Nasdaq 100 page, for instance. Still, for Musk, it must be a nice victory.